page_title: Territories claimed by the Philippines
section_title: North Borneo
hierarchical_section_title: Territories claimed by the Philippines / Main territories claimed / North Borneo
caption_attribution_description: English: Concession of Sabah by the Sultan of Brunei to Baron von Overbeck, December 29th, 1877 and by the Sultan of Sulu on January 22nd, 1878.
context_page_description: The Philippines has claimed many territories throughout its history. These territories include the Spratly Islands, Sabah, Scarborough Shoal, Palmias, Orchid Island, the Sangir Islands, the Marianas Islands, and the Caroline Islands.
context_section_description: Between 1658 and 1700, the Sultanate of Sulu acquired the eastern part of the territory of Northern Borneo after helping the Bruneian forces settle a civil war. The Sulu Archipelago then came under the control of the Spanish while the area of Northern Borneo was administered by the British after the sultans of Brunei and Sulu agreed to cede their control. The western and eastern parts of Northern Borneo became known as North Borneo.
  In its process of decolonization beginning in 1946, Great Britain included Sabah in the newly formed Federation of Malaysia. The Philippines, which had already achieved its independence from the United States, protested the formation of Malaysia and filed claims for the whole territory of Northern Borneo under the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal. However, during a meeting to plan Maphilindo, the Philippine government stated that it had no objection to the formation of Malaysia, but claimed that the Sultan of Sulu wanted payment from the British government. The first Malaysian Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, said he would return to Kuala Lumpur to protest the Philippines' claim.
  Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos later revived the claim and trained a number of Moro fighters to reclaim the territory in a secret mission named Operation Merdeka. However, when the recruits gained knowledge of their true mission, most of them demanded to be returned home, as they did not want to kill their fellow Muslims in Sabah. Their request was denied; Marcos did not send back his soldiers but instead executed most of the fighters in an event known as the Jabidah massacre. This caused a southern Philippines insurgency to emerge, and the claim continued to be escalated by other claimants from the defunct Sultanate of Sulu. These claimants each attempted to give themselves legitimacy by self-proclaiming as the new Sultan of Sulu with support from politicians in the Philippine central government wishing to incorporate Sabah into the Philippines. Most new claimants and Philippine politicians today use the promised Malaysian lease payment as their main reason to take over the territory and also use it as a reason before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
caption: (Left) The first concession treaty was signed by Sultan Abdul Momin of Brunei on 29 December 1877, appointing Baron de Overbeck as the Maharaja Sabah, Rajah Gaya and Sandakan.[1]
  (Right) The second concession treaty was signed by Sultan Jamal ul-Azam of Sulu on 22 January 1878, also appointing Baron de Overbeck as Dato Bendahara and Raja Sandakan, approximately three weeks after signature of the first treaty.[2]
  The Philippine government considers concession as "lease".
exif: {"Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint.NET v3.5.10", "Image ExifOffset": "108"}